WolfWrites

The Calling of Wrath - Chapter 33 - Pond (Patreon)

Published:

2022-08-02 04:00:49

Edited:

2022-08-13 13:04:23

Imported:

2022-10

Content

Cassandra
Year 819 | Month 1 | Day 21

Once Thrix and I get to a safe enough location – that being a relatively small hole in a very large tree nearly half a kilometer away from where we fought the spiders – I place it down and look over its wounds.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any way to heal it. And medical practices weren’t something I ever learned during my lessons.

So I just wrap it up with some leaves in the hopes that it’ll help somehow. Which it could, since I don’t actually know how fast a hockathrix’s regeneration is.

After finishing with that, I check my status to look at my EXP.

Not even one hundred and fifty EXP from all of those spiderlings…?

I look back at Thrix again, only to find it staring at me with a mixture of fear and confusion. After that, I look back outside of the tree again with a frown as the sounds of screeches continue to echo in the distance from the direction we came from.

Fortunately, they don’t sound like they’re getting any closer, but it would probably be for the best that we stay here for a couple of hours to wait for them to calm down.

Right as I’m about to lie back against the bark of the tree, a mission note appears in my vision.

I purse my lips in thought before swiping away at the mission.

If I have to, I will. But I learned my lesson not to go specifically searching for higher Tier monsters to fight from fighting that Tier 2 greater abomination while I was Tier 1.

Although, these missions don’t seem to have any time limit. Which means I’ll likely be able to come back in the future to complete them.

So that’s a though.

But for now, I lay down on the ground against the bark of the tree.

It would be best not to antagonize the most-likely Tier 3 monster. Especially since the difference between Tiers only grows larger over time.

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It takes nearly two hours for the sounds of screeches to cease outside, along with another hour after that before I feel safe about leaving.

I take a moment to wake up Thrix – which it doesn’t exactly like – and then proceed to leave the hole in the tree, with the little fella following behind me of its own tuition.

Which isn’t really surprising, considering where we are and that I haven’t actually tried hurting it before. Even if I’m the one who brought it here in the first place.

After all, if it tried to run away, it’d probably die somewhere in the inner ring. So really, I’m its only way to survive right now.

We begin making our way carefully through the forest, all while remaining as quiet as possible so as to not attract any unwanted attention.

Despite that effort though, we – or rather, I – end up fighting plenty of Tier 1 and 2 monsters along the way until we arrive at a nice pond.

I narrow my eyes at the water before sticking my hand into it to test it. After it does nothing to my hand, I look around before leaving for a moment and quickly finding one of those small squirrel monsters that I’ve been dumping into my spatial pouch as the direwolves’ replacement for my food supply.

The creature is rather odd, with wisps of pure darkness flowing beneath their paws and at the ends of both of its two tails, but aside from that, it’s still just a Tier 1 monster.

I pick it up with one hand while ignoring its protests before bringing it over to the pond and shoving its face into the water for several seconds, only to bring it back out once I’m sure that it’s swallowed at least a little.

Time to see if this water is safe to drink or not…

Several minutes pass by and the squirrel doesn’t seem to have any problems, but I continue watching it for another ten minutes just to make sure before tossing it to the side and drinking the water myself.

As I’m taking a drink, I hear the squirrel quickly make its exit, all while Thrix – who was just sitting there watching this whole time – finally goes up to the water and takes a drink rather sluggishly due to its injuries.

Once I finish, I splash some water on my face and climb to my feet. I then look out into the pond before freezing in place as a thought comes to me.

This pond is a perfectly easy source of water, so…

Why aren’t there any monsters or animals here having some?

At that thought, I hurriedly grab Thrix and make a run for it. However, nothing happens, even after I get a few dozen meters away behind cover.

Was I just imagining it…?

I shake my head at the thought before holding Thrix in place to make sure it doesn’t go to the pond and staying in the hiding spot until I eventually do see a monster get close to the water. This one being one of those enormous praying mantis monsters that I had run into not too long after leaving the tree earlier.

It slowly approaches the water before taking a quick drink and attempting to sprint away – which in and of itself is rather suspicious – but is suddenly tripped somehow and falls flat on its front in the red-mist-covered grass.

My eyes then widen as I notice something very thin wrapped around the creature’s foot.

I was right then. But why didn’t it attack me and Thrix?

Is it just Tier 1 and was frightened of me? Or maybe it’s just a weaker Tier 2 monster that didn’t want to take a chance against me?

Either way, the thing wrapped around the mantis’s foot – which looks suspiciously like a tongue – begins to pull it into the pond rather lethargically.

I frown at the sight before glancing at Thrix, who is no longer wanting to go to the pond after seeing what just happened.

Yeah, it’d have to be rather stupid to still want to go there after seeing that.

I turn to look back at the water again, only to eventually look up at the sky to check our position before starting to make my way through the forest again towards the West.

At the rate we’re going, it’ll take days to get through the inner ring…

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